Play it again (and again at) Sam(’s)

Under a chilly cloudless Bristol sky, six gamers braved the weather to congregate at Sam's house for the week's regular gaming meet.

We started as a group of five (Sam, Joe, Ian, Matt and me) so we whiled away the minutes until Martin arrived with a quick game of Cartegena. This is a simple game of maximising your inadequately small hand of cards to get your band of pirates out of jail and into a boat.

It soon became apparent that positional play was everything. Knowing when to shoot ahead and when to fall back is key, and Sam had a better idea of when than the rest of us.

Sam: all 6 pirates escape
Joe 4
Ian 2
Andrew 2
Matt.0

Martin had arrived mid-game and once we were done guiding pirates down tunnels, we split into two groups of three. Ian, Sam and Martin chose The Quest For Eldorado, a Knizia game of racing through various types of terrain.

I didn't really follow it, since I was busy learning the rules to Azul, another new game. In this game, players take turns picking up tiles to fill their five by five grid. But in order to get a tile onto the grid, you have to fill up a row (of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 tiles) with all the same colour. If you pick up tiles that won't go on a row, they count against you as negative points.

It had, for me, just the right amount of analysis paralysis. Thoughtful but not an ordeal. In the first game Joe, the only one who'd played before, won with a strong final round.

Joe 82
Andrew 52
Matt 44

The Quest For Eldorado was still being quested. I remember, in the early stages, seeing Ian firmly in last, apparently distracted by every cave he went past.

But I was soon consumed by a second game of Azul. This game was far more combative. At least, that's how it felt to me. Matt, though, seemed to have spent the first game learning, since he scored well in end-of-game bonuses and pushed Joe into second place.

Matt 97
Joe 88
Andrew 60

The Quest For Eldorado had ended long before we had, and Ian's early obsession with caves was paying dividends, as he was now in a strong first place. Sam appeared to have stalled mid-game while Martin ran Ian a respectable, but very definite, second place.

Ian
Martin
Sam

In the interim, while they waited for our second game of Azul to end, they played three rousing games of Eggs Of Ostrich. Each one remarkable for the cries of anguish from Martin, unable to predict his opponents wily ways.

Game one ended...

Sam 17
Martin 8
Ian 6

Followed by...

Ian 8
Sam 7
Martin 5

And finally...

Sam 7
Ian 3
Martin 3

And so, with the rueful observation that they had become worse at the game the more they played, all six of us were together again.

However, there was no appetite for a big six player. Instead, we simply swapped ends of the table, with the Eldorado Questers taking up the Azul challenge. Me, Joe and Matt decided to play Ra as our approximately Azul-length game.

Matt, though, merely continued as he had during Azul. He had a poor first round that gave me a glimmer of hope, but while I built up my Nile and Joe went for buildings and civilizations, Matt played for buildings, pharaohs and got the sun tile bonus.

Matt 56
Joe 40
Andrew 34

Their game of Azul had ended

Ian 56
Martin 54
Sam 40

They even had enough time to squeeze in a little NMBR9. Martin's quote "Once you get a hole, you're fucked" proved to be an accurate assessment of his situation.

Sam 90
Martin 56
Ian 47

And so ended the evening for most. Joe was offering lifts to the Eastonites, so they sped off and I was happy to call it a night at 10.40.

But Sam and Matt had one more game inside them. I got a text from Sam as I was getting ready for bed, telling me that Matt had beaten him at Tokyo Highway “by a car.” I’ve no idea what that means, but I hope to try it on Friday.

Until then, it’s good night from me, and it’s good night from them.